Close Call: A Liz Carlyle Novel

By Stella Rimington

CIA agent Miles Brookhaven was attacked in a souk while infiltrating rebel groups in the area. No one was certain if his cover had been blown or if the act was just an arbitrary attack on Westerners. Months later, the incident remains a mystery.

Now, Liz Carlyle and her Counter Terrorism unit in MI5 have been charged with the task of observing the international under-the-counter arms trade. With the Arabic region in such a volatile state, British Intelligence forces have become increasing concerned that extremist Al-Qaeda jihadis are building their power base, ready to launch another attack. As the pressure mounts, Liz and her team must intercept illegal weapons before they get into the wrong hands.

But when MI5 learns that the source of the arms deals is located in Western Europe, Liz finds herself on a manhunt that leads her to Paris, to Berlin and into her own long-forgotten past.

A past buried so deep that she thought it would never resurface . . .

THE DEVIL'S BARGAIN, the brand-new thriller from Stella Rimington, is out now.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jul 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781408841068

Stella Rimington

Dame Stella Rimington joined the Security Service (MI5) in 1968. During her career she worked in all the main fields of the Service: counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism. She was appointed Director General in 1992, the first woman to hold the post. She has written her autobiography and six Liz Carlyle novels. She lives in London and Norfolk.

Reviews for Close Call

[pgchuis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

#8 and this one wasn't too bad, apart from the repetitiousness of all the relationships. Peggy steps up as a safe pair of hands, Liz spends most of her life sitting on a Eurostar train (what dies MI5 have against video-conferencing or even just using the telephone?).The actual plot concerns the importation of arms into the UK for use by jihadis, but manages to take in corrupt ministers in Yemen, clandestine meetings in Paris and Berlin and a nightclub/brothel in Manchester. It did seem to hold together relatively well and I always enjoy the descriptions of the A4 department's surveillance tactics.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is no surprise that Stella Rimington's novels seem so credible -she was, after all, head of MI5 for several years before embarking on her career as a novelist. This is her eighth to feature Liz Carlyle, rising star of MI5, and reading it this week brought out a chilling topicality, centring as it does on jihadist action in Paris and London.The action move much more rapidly than with authors such as John le Carre, with whom Rimington is often compared, and while her books may not quite be as substantial or engrossing as le Carre's, she does not allow the faster action to compromise the story's credibility. Rimington gives us an immensely plausible espionage procedural, taking the reader with great care through the MI5 operation as it develops. Liz Carlyle is certainly a very empathetic protagonist, and one who's character become increasingly more credible with each new volume.